Chapter 37

They hadn’t noticed them approaching until Onk called out to them. “Pardon me Sachel, would you mind giving us a moment of your time?”

They turned to them and the horned green girl, presumably Sachel, eyed Ben with some suspicion before answering. “Hey Onk, sure what do you need?”

“Ben here is changing his job, but he got a bit of a unique option, we were hoping you may know something about it.”

“Well I’m not sure why you think I would know anything, but sure let’s hear it.”

“Wait!” Skoe cut in. “If he wants to know, he should hear us out first.”

“Skoe…” The snake-like Naga beside him started in a warning voice.

“Ralia he’s brushed us off every time we’ve tried to talk to him, if he wants our help I’m not backing down now.”

“Really I’m only looking for Sachel’s help, but sure I’ll hear you out,” Ben said casually. The three of them seemed completely thrown off guard by his sudden willingness to talk considering how he’d ignored them up until that point, but by now he had a pretty good idea of what they were going to say anyway.

Skoe was quick to recover. “Well maybe you’re not a complete lost cause after all. Look Thera’s got some crazy magic that will mess with your mind. She used it to drive one of the adventures insane. Hell she just did it to the whole town a week ago. If you stick around her for too long you’re only putting yourself in danger.”

“Skoe!” Onk yelled at him. “You know damn well things are more complicated than that. Thera’s a nice young girl, I won’t put up with you trying to scare off her partner, understood?”

“But Onk,” Sachel spoke up. “Even if Skoe oversimplified things too much, he’s not wrong. Her passive magic drove Roan insane, and it took hours for people to shake their side effects after she ran through the town. He needs to at least be aware about it.”

“We all know that Roan was an unbalanced individual to begin with,” Onk argued. “Not to mention that Thera warned both him and the guild. She should not be held responsible for our failings.”

“Plus,” Ben spoke up. “The only reason she had run through the town like that was to save my life. Anyway I’m already aware of all this. Is there anything else, cause if not I want to move on to my own problem.”

“Wait, you know? And you’re still working with her? Just how deep has she gotten her claws into you?” Skoe asked. “Onk come on, does he seem like he’s reacting like someone who knows they’re hanging around someone so dangerous?”

Ben let out a long sigh and pulled out his card, for once taking care to hide all the information on it except his resistances. No need to make everyone aware of his status as an apostle. “Skoe a toddler with a knife could be dangerous, it’s not going to worry me too much. Anyway I can resist basically any passive magic from what I understand,” He wasn’t strictly sure if that was true of course, but given the amount of mana Thera had access to it still only resulted in needing a resistance of 40, he was comfortable making that assertion for now. He tossed over his card and let the three of them take a look, pretty much ignoring all of their mumblings about his resistances as they looked it over. “So it’s all good and we can move on, right?”

“No. this is impressive and all, I’m sure you’d make a great tank with these resistances, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t affected by her,” He continued on stubbornly.

Ben had to wonder if all of this was worth it for info on a job he doubted he would be taking anyway, but Ralia came to his defence.

“No Skoe, it does. Resistances don’t count the same way for passive magics as they do for a regular spell. Instead of every ten points of resistance weakening a spell’s effects by about five percent, a passive magic can actually be measured to determine at what resistance level it wouldn’t have any effects at. With the exception of some of the mana-based lifeforms around I’ve never heard of anything needing a resistance higher than in the twenties.”

Skoe fell silent once this was explained to him and Ben found that was actually quite interesting to learn as well, enough so that he no longer considered the entire conversation a complete waste of time. Considering that Thera’s father was one of those mana-based life forms it probably contributed to her higher power as well, and solidified his theory that he was immune to most, if not all passive magics.

“Alright, well now that that’s out of the way, Sachel can you tell us anything about the Tree Tamer job? It’s usually a dryad linked one, right?” Onk asked, bringing them back around to the original purpose of coming to their table.

Hearing Onk’s question though, she bolted up and grabbed Ben’s hands. “You can become a Tree Tamer? So you awakened your skills into plant magic!”

“Um, no,” He said, unsure of how to react to the girl’s immediate change in demeanor.

“So you were able to get low plant magic then? I’m so jealous, it’s so hard to awaken if your race doesn’t have a proper affinity for it.”

“Wait, no. I don’t have any sort of plant magic. For that matter, what is plant magic?”

She let go of his hands and looked at him funny. “You must have something, how could you have tamed a plant without being able to properly understand it?”

When she asked that, Ben had an idea on what he’d done, but he had to verify. “Is plant magic something that lets you talk to plants?”

“Among other things, but that’s the aspect you need to use to unlock the Tree tamer job,” She told him with a distant look in her eye. “Plant magic is something that will awaken when you evolve life, water, and earth magic together. Of course there’s also a small chance you can awaken low plant magic from training in those three attributes, and pure-blooded dryads have access to it from birth,” She suddenly focused back in on him again and got into his face. “So how did you manage to unlock the job without it?”

Ralia stood up and gently pulled her back a bit. “Sorry about her,” She said. “Her dream is to awaken to plant magic one day so she’s just a little excited now.”

“Ralia you don’t need to tell him that, I’m just curious is all. So how did you manage it?” She asked again in a much calmer way.

He didn’t see too much harm in explaining. Actually what he saw was an opportunity. “I used a skill called connect, it lets me link up to other living things and feel what they’re feeling. I’ve been training it by holding conversations of sorts with my houseplant.”

Her eyes lit up in excitement. “I don’t suppose you could tell me how you got it, could you? If I want to awaken my skills then being able to talk to plants already seems like a good way to do it.”

“Couse, I have no problem letting you know, but you may not want to do it. I got it as a gift skill from my god.”

“Oh,” She deflated a little. “So I’d have to convert, and even then I wouldn’t be guaranteed to get it.”

“Well that’s not strictly true,” He told her, preparing a small lie. “You would have to convert, yes. But my god Myriad is one with only a few followers and values every one he gets. When I converted his apostle assured me that as long as his followers would make sure to pray to him every day, they would eventually get a gift skill. It only took me a couple months.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up, though she looked conflicted. “But changing my faith just for a skill… But if I really could get it in just a few months of prayer… I don’t even know anything about this god… Ah I’ll think about it!” She yelled. “Would you mind if I ask you any questions I have about him later?”

“Sure I don’t mind,” You see that Myriad? Look at me being a proper apostle. But his smug thought was met with silence. Of course the time I actually do this is a time he’s not watching. “But anyway, back to Tree Tamer, could you tell me any more about the job?”

“Oh sure of course. It’s pretty much just a job that helps you understand plants. You’ll grow a greater feeling for how to take care of them, as well as how to understand their needs. It usually helps you increase your plant magic if you get it, but since you don’t have it I would think it would provide bonuses to your connect skill. Usually it’s something dryad’s that want to care for their home forests acquire, but I think farmers get it too if they can to help produce better crops.”

“That was actually super informative, thanks, and if you have any questions about Myriad just let me know, I’ll be happy to help you out,” With everything he needed done Ben left with Onk, back to think on what he should pick.

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